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To embrace Digital Transformation you need an API Program. Why wait until your first production release before others can get hands on with your APIs?
In the world of two-speed IT, API teams develop Mocks of backend services, using tools such as API Studio in order to develop APIs against services that are still in development. Taking an Agile approach enables API consumers to begin interacting with your API through a Developer Portal from day one. API First methodologies allow Product Owners and Early Adopters to provide feedback from Sprint 0.
But why stop within the walls of your organization? Public APIs enable others to innovate and develop quickly and without limits- " the young people don't know what can't be done". Creating a sandbox environment enables your API Design, Documentation and Security to be tested by real consumers, without risking your reputation or live customer data.
At Apigee, we recently entered the Bank Of APIs hackathon, run by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The BlueBank API was a sandbox with a rich set of accounts, transactions and branches that allowed us hackers to innovate without limits. Attendees ranged from business students to bedroom developers and vendors. After 48 hours of hard work we had built an OAuth 2.0 compliant Virtual Account management system using Apigee Edge + NodeJS, Apigee BaaS and the BlueBank APIs. This was exposed using a Bootstrap Web application. We came third! (too much time in the pub?!)
The winners created an Geolocation based security mechanism, intended to restrict the spending of elderly to their local shops. This was a great example of combining the digital assets exposed by RBS with other open APIs to create new value for the consumers, demonstrating the power that the BlueBank API will bring when it goes live.
On a personal note, this hackathon allowed me to get to know people I had never worked with before, to pull together to build something cool in a very short space of time. Seeing the buzz creating by the BlueBank API demonstration as everybody itched to explore their ideas on whiteboards was a fantastic experience. Geeks, business folk and everybody in between were welcome. I would recommend the experience to anybody with an interest in technology and believe that RBS have set a fine example that I hope others can follow. I will be taking part in one again!
Here is a video from the event:
